7 Actions That Can Help Your Wallet in a Troubled Economy

While the economic sky is falling, it’s still possible to make sure that your financial status is steady. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been even more focused on the steps I’m taking to improve my personal finances. I’ve found a few actions that probably won’t make you a millionaire — but they will ensure that a rocky economy doesn’t have too much of an effect on your wallet.

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1. Pay Down Debt

When in doubt on your finances, paying down debt is always a good option. The simple fact of the matter is that it’s easier to get more credit down the road if you pay off debt now. I realize that many financial gurus say that an emergency fund is the best place to start. Well, from my own experiences in a rough economy when interest rates can do all sorts of crazy things, paying down debt can be a better plan. If an emergency comes up, you may need to take on more debt to cover it — but you’ll be better equipped to handle it.

2. Polish Your Resume

Even if you aren’t in a field that’s currently experiencing a high rate of turnover, you should pull out your resume and polish it. If you’ve already got a good-looking resume in place, you’ve got a head start on all sorts of things: job-hunting, applying for a second job, freelancing and more. It may not be worth hiring a resume coach or other professional, but it’s definitely worthwhile to find a few examples of good resumes and compare yours.

3. Take a Close Look at Your Retirement Plan

401(k)s remain the popular retirement plan and, if you have one, it’s time to take a close look. The same goes for IRAs and any other assets you’ve purchased on your own. The market is very volatile now — it may be possible to pick up some impressive stocks on the cheap and it may be possible to watch the prices of the stocks in your 401(k) tumble downwards. As long as you aren’t retiring in the next few years, you can probably afford to ride this economic down turn out. The only stock-picking advice I can offer — and this applies to other assets as well — is that diversity is your friend. If your money is spread out, at least over a variety of stocks if not a variety of investment instruments, then a problem in a particular company or industry won’t wipe you out.

4. Buy Stuff Now

If you’ve got a big purchase coming up that you really do need to make, it’s better to make the purchase now rather than later. The U.S. dollar has already experienced significant inflation; it’s only going to get worse. That basically means your money is worth more now that it will be in a few months. You’ll get more bang for your buck if you can buy now. It’s a little counter-intuitive, I admit, and there are plenty of exceptions to this step. Shopping, however, can be good for your wallet in the long run. You get the added bonus of knowing that you’re improving the economy with every cent you spend.

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5. Educate Yourself

I think we’ve all gotten a crash course in terms like ‘MBS’ lately, although we may not know exactly what they mean. It’s time to start seriously studying your personal finance vocab though, up to and including economic terms. The U.S. government offers plenty of free resources that are perfect for teaching yourself more about personal finance. You’ll have to custom fit your educational plan to your own finances: a really great starting point, I think, is reading through my latest bank statement and checking up on all the things I don’t understand, down to calling up and asking a teller about specific fees.

6. Invest in Your Future

If you’re having some trouble in the working world, now might be the perfect time to head back to school and get that degree you always wanted. You can get bigger loans with better terms to live on for a few years — hopefully getting you through the worst parts of our current economic problems before going back on the job market. Brushing up on your skills (and learning new ones) can also be the difference between making enough money to make it through economic problems comfortably and having to take a job for which you are overqualified. You don’t have to go all out and enlist back in school. In some cases, reading a book is more than enough effort to improve your career situation.

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7. Ignore the News

The news media seems pretty much obsessed with each economic crisis, but you really can’t do much about the Dow Jones slipping or a bank failing. I recommend skipping the nightly news entirely, but muting just the business news might be enough. Some specialized news is, of course, worth paying attention to — if you’re invested in the stock market, it’s probably a good idea to read the stock reports. That’s really about it, though. Most of us have effectively no affect on any economic or business news: I know that even if I send a letter to my Congressman about the bailout package, I’m probably not going to affect his final decision. It’s just not worth paying attention to all that depressing news.

Why Do I Have Bad Luck? 2 Simple Things to Change Your Destiny

Are you one of those people who are always suffering setbacks? Does little ever seem to go right for you? Do you sometimes feel that the universe is out to get you? Do you wonder:

Why do I have bad luck? Is bad luck real?

A couple of months ago, I met up with an old friend of mine who I hadn’t seen since last year. Over lunch, we talked about all kinds of things, including our careers, relationships and hobbies.

My friend told me his job had become dull and uninteresting to him, and despite applying for promotion – he’d been turned down. His personal life wasn’t great either, as he told me that he’d recently separated from his long-term girlfriend.

When I asked him why things had seemingly gone wrong at home and work, he paused for a moment, and then replied:

“I’m having a run of bad luck.”

I was surprised by his response as I’d never thought of him as someone who thought that luck controlled his life. He always appeared to be someone who knew what he wanted – and went after it with gusto.

He told me he did believe in bad luck because of everything happened to me.

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It was at this point, that I shared my opinion on luck and destiny:

While chance events certainly occur, they are purely random in nature. In other words, good luck and bad luck don’t exist in the way that people believe. And more importantly, even if random negative events do come along, our perspective and reaction can turn them into positive things.

Your luck is no worse—and no better—than anyone else’s. It just feels that way. Better still, there are two simple things you can do which will reverse your feelings of being unlucky and change your luck.

1. Stop believing that what happens in life is out of your control.

Stop believing that what happens in your life is down to the vagaries of luck, destiny, supernatural forces, malevolent other people, or anything else outside yourself.

Psychologists call this “external locus of control.” It’s a kind of fatalism, where people believe that they can do little or nothing personally to change their lives.

Because of this, they either merely hope for the best, focus on trying to change their luck by various kinds of superstition, or submit passively to whatever comes—while complaining that it doesn’t match their hopes.

Most successful people take the opposite view. They have “internal locus of control.” They believe that what happens in their life is nearly all down to them; and that even when chance events occur, what is important is not the event itself, but how you respond to it.

This makes them pro-active, engaged, ready to try new things, and keen to find the means to change whatever in their lives they don’t like.

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They aren’t fatalistic and they don’t blame bad luck for what isn’t right in their world. They look for a way to make things better.

Are they luckier than the others? Of course not.

Luck is random—that’s what chance means—so they are just as likely to suffer setbacks as anyone else.

What’s different is their response. When things go wrong, they quickly look for ways to put them right. They don’t whine, pity themselves, or complain about “bad luck.” They try to learn from what happened to avoid or correct it next time and get on with living their life as best they can. They have this Motivation Engine, which most people lack, to keep them going.

No one is habitually luckier or unluckier than anyone else. It may seem so, over the short term (Random events often come in groups, just as random numbers often lie close together for several instances—which is why gamblers tend to see patterns where none exist).

When you take a longer perspective, random chance is just . . . random. Yet those who feel that they are less lucky, typically pay far more attention to short-term instances of bad luck, convincing themselves of the correctness of their belief.

Your locus of control isn’t genetic. You learned it somehow. If it isn’t working for you, change it.

2. Remember that whatever you pay attention to grows in your mind.

If you focus on what’s going wrong in your life—especially if you see it as “bad luck” you can do nothing about—it will seem blacker and more malevolent.

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In a short time, you’ll become so convinced that everything is against you that you’ll notice more and more instances where this appears to be true. As a result, you will drown yourself in negative energy and almost certainly stop trying, convinced that nothing you can do will improve your prospects.

Not long ago, a reader (I’ll call her Kelly) has shared with me about how frustrated she felt and how unlucky she was. Kelly’s an aspiring entrepreneur. She had been trying to find investors to invest in her project. It hadn’t been going well as she was always rejected by the potential investors. And at her most stressful time, her boyfriend broke up with her. And the day after her breakup, she missed an important opportunity to meet an interested investor. She was about to give up because she felt that she’d not be lucky enough to build her business successfully.

It definitely wasn’t an easy time for her. She was stressful and tired. But it wasn’t bad luck that was playing the role.

Fatalism feeds on itself until people become passive “victims” of life’s blows. The “losers” in life are those who are convinced they will fail before they start anything; sure that their “bad luck” will ruin any prospects of success.

They rarely notice that the true reasons for their failure are ignorance, laziness, lack of skill, lack of forethought, or just plain foolishness—all of which they could do something to correct, if only they would stop blaming other people or “bad luck” for their personal deficiencies.

I explained to Kelly that to improve her fortune and have “good luck”, first decide that what happens is nearly always down to her; then try to focus on what works and what turns out well, not the bad stuff.

Then Kelly tried to review her current situation objectively. She realized that she only needed a short break for herself — from work and her just broken-up relationship. She really needed some time to clear up her mind before moving on with her work and life. When she got her emotions settled down from her heartbreak, she started to work on improving her business’ selling points and looked for new investors that are more suitable.

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A few months later, she told me that she finally found two investors who were really interested in her project and would like to work with her to grow the business. I was really glad that she could take back control of her destiny and achieved what she wanted.

Your “fate” really does depend on the choices that you make. When random events happen, as they always will, do you choose to try to turn them to your advantage or just complain about them?

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve learned the 2 simple things you can do to take control of your fate and create your own luck. But this isn’t it! These simple techniques you’ve learned here are just part of the essential 7 Cornerstone Skills — a skillset that will give you the power to create permanent solutions to big problems in life — any problem in any area of your life!

If you think you’re “suffering from bad luck”, you can really change things up and start life over with these 7 Cornerstone Skills. It may even be a lot easier than you thought: